Remember there is a green colour round table in our living hall. I have removed this table and asked hubby to buy us new shelving unit to keep the toys and books. As I been stressing how important the living environment for a child to nurture habits and reading, I have certainly spent lots of time revamping the house again.

I started to pack Yvette’s toys and books on last Saturday. I took two days to finish all the packing and here are the result which I love it so much as of now.

I swapped the little table from the diagonal corner to this corner with her little piano. We brought two magenta shelves (colour chosen by Yvette) from the furniture near our house. Initially we plan to get it from Ikea. But after considering the cost and time involve, we abolished the decision. I love our new shelves. Instead of placing them in standing position, I choose to lay them flat on the ground so that I can slack them up. I plan to buy another one to maximize the storage space.

Here the close up of the shelves. Going forward, instead of leaving Yvette’s bag on the floor, now she has to place her bag onto the shelves like what is practiced in school. Books are consolidated here too instead of placing them all over the living room now. (Removed the learning material from the TV console too.)

Now the shelving units that near the door will only pack with toys. (Above picture. Below picture is the overall feel of the hall now.)

Since we have made several trips to Ikea before we finalized this decision. We found this very useful. Again this to culture good habit and easy assess of material.

As I mentioned I have consolidated most all the books and packed them neatly again. I have removed those materials I used to teach Yvette to another room and moved down most books. Yvette had grown taller and now she is able to reach out book in the first level. (This is the book shelves storage unit in her room.)

Thanks Rachel for teaching me this term. I have no idea about this till she left me a comment on my last post. I think I am not surprise that I didn’t know this term as we are not putting effort to teach Yvette how to write honestly. However, I will still want to find out more about this, so I google.

I learnt from this site that Penmanship skill requires development of fine motor skills and hand strength so practice does not become laborious.

According to this site, it mentions one can begin helping to facilitate penmanship skills long before children will actually be writing. Games that involve fine motor skills can help develop these skills.

I believe allowing this box of beans in her little kitchen helps her in developing such skill. This box of bean was given to her during our home learning lesson. I taught her not to put all these beans into her mouth as they are not cooked and she will have stomachache. And I trust her. So far no accident has happened due to this box of bean.

Often she will took out the Ikea bowl to sort out the beans herself and she will count them too. She loves playing with them and usually that could keep her busy for half an hour. And besides playing with this box of beans, I think letting her helping me removing borlotti bean from the shell helps in developing her fine motor skill too.

Other than the fine motor skills, this article also mentions that strength in the hands can improve penmanship and can usually be accomplished through different sporting activities like swimming or climbing on monkey bars. My girl loves all these.

And after reading this article and collecting all the evidences mentioned by this article, I know, her Penmanship skill didn’t happen by chance. It has been nurtured by us over time but we didn’t realise that will help her in developing such skill!

P/S: If your child didn’t like all these activities I mention in my post, just google and there are ton of ideas that help to develop such skill. (It doesn’t have to wait till they are ready, you can make it happen.)

If I feel her English is good, in term of word recognition, reading, comprehension. Her Chinese is as good. I certainty get pays off after I have invested more time and even send her to Chinese Enrichment Class. (A class worth paying. S$320 for 13 lessons on weekend. What a catch!!!)

I got 婴幼儿生活游戏识字 from Happy Cottage and I am happy to share that she loves all these books very much and definitely added more Chinese word into her language bank.

We don’t revise this book everyday and today she read the above to me without making a single mistake. (She also learnt this word from the Chinese Class too)

Post navigation

Sweet & Sour Days

Hi, I spent for close to 3 years of my life being a SAHM after Yvette was born. I am now a Full Time Working Mum enjoying every bit of my life with my family and my only dd, Yvette. I realise that most of the stuff that makes life great aren't the big things, but the little minute details. With that, I decide to record and share my experiences here.....So that when I look back, I could remember how I have spent my life!